WNDS

Pretty much agree with all of this (although I don't dislike Conte as a manager anywhere as much as you seem to ), but that last part in particular needs emphasising.
My issue with Conte hasn't been that we've found ourselves unable to compete for the highest honours this season (an issue that's probably due to the board's huge cock-up regarding our non-Kante CM position), but rather that he's 'successfully' talked our squad down to the extent that (a few games aside) our players seem to have had the belief sucked out of them; as a result, we've basically failed to make top-four with a squad that is COMFORTABLY up to that standard (top-four/five/six in Europe is another matter entirely, of course).
I feel that the same can be said of our manager: Conte himself is up to that standard; he's not exceptional, but he's very good. He's also very stubborn and absolutely convinced that his assessment of the relative merits of our current squad is correct, and this appears to have caused him to adopt inflexible ways of thinking as regards our team (e.g. an insistence on playing 3-at-the-back formations no matter what). He really should have accepted how things were once the summer transfer window closed (perhaps resolving to move elswhere this coming summer) and knuckled-down with the squad he actually has at his disposal, instead of spending far too much of his time moaning at all-and-sundry about how he wanted a different one. Or otherwise he should have left in protest. One or the other, because it's become increasingly evident as this season has progressed that Conte has taken his eye off the ball and wound-up in a no-man's-land, even if he hasn't realised it himself; the results are plain for all to see, however.

Exactly. It's pure hype-fuelled BS when people claim that we 'need' the best-of-the-best to compete.
Look at that Liverpool midfield; look at it! Chelsea fans would be having a real tantrum if we were putting that out against anyone better than Watford, and yet look at what they are capable of producing in the right set-up, with the proper coaching, and with the correct mentality.
The board bear some of the blame for what has happened this season, sure, but Conte's endless 'need' to emphasise our squad's apparent inferiority at every opportunity appears to have been the key ingredient to our failure so far this season. Enough. We have Hazard, Kante, and Azpilicueta, all of whom can be supported quite ably by players like Morata, Giroud, Willian, Alonso, Christensen, and Rudiger. Our squad has some (serious) flaws in it, no question, but it is SO much better than Conte has made it seem to be for the majority of this season.

Agree @WNDS I don't really know what he's moaning about tbh. It's weird. Look at Klopp today :
You don't see him moaning about lack of transfer funds every time. Klopp wasn't scared to bring on Solanke tonight. In a freaking UCL quarter final game against City with 20 mins to go + extra time. Our own Solanke. Conte will never.
I always thought of Conte as not being a cheque-book manager but based on his career so far he seems like a builder who can't manage his building once he finishes construction. We saw it at Juventus as you stated in the other thread. Conte got Juventus back to a great level. Allegri was the one who took that team to a new level. Conte seems to have problems re-inventing himself which eeringly similar to Mourinho. His moans about transfer spendings are just a cover-up for his failings. He's been all over the place tactically this season which has kind of surprised me. 

don't mind the fans that buy into conte philosophy of moaning about players transfer... Just look at Liverpool XI and they ain't afraid to take the game to City unlike our very conte who will moan and keep 10 players behind the ball while playing our best player in false nine position...our board has their absolute flaws but conte moaning is absolutely acidic... Imagine Liverpool midfield...jist imagine....by conte ideaology City should be smashing Liverpool...again look at Arnold nobody playing right back for klopp while clyne is sitting out on bench..conte will rather keep Dujon sterling and Emerson to rot on bench while playing Moses and Alonso we all know will end up disastrous ...

This has been my problem with him all season; as I mentioned above, the board carries some of the blame as well, but complaining about the quality of his squad to the media at almost EVERY given opportunity was something he did in his final season at Juventus. Juventus. A club that CAN (it's true) be a little tight at times, but who generally have the knack of sniffing-out good-value deals that enhance the squad.
Conte looked rather foolish when he left. Allegri came in, took the players Conte didn't want, added those new aquisitions he wasn't keen on either, and proptly made them a very competitive outfit who reached two CL finals.

This is Liverpool's xi for the game btw:

Conte will come out and start moaning about lack of transfers or players of his desired quality while klopp keeping using the ordinary players like ox lovren Arnold managing and maximising them makes me frustrated....coming out to attack and play your game makes the likes of Silva and De bruyne looks ordinary

Pair him up with someone like Fred (Shakhtar, realistically obtainable), and we'd possibly have one of the best midfields in club football (only just behind the usual suspects).
Our inability to acquire a suitable partner for Kante has been our major downfall this season. Even with our current issues surrounding the striker position (and Conte's sometimes questionable attitude), I feel that we could have done something great this season if we just had this missing piece.

Pair him up with someone like Fred (Shakhtar, realistically obtainable), and we'd possibly have one of the best midfields in club football (only just behind the usual suspects).
Our inability to acquire a suitable partner for Kante has been our major downfall this season. Even with our current issues surrounding the striker position (and Conte's sometimes questionable attitude), I feel that we could have done something great this season if we just had this missing piece.

I think his time as an important player for us is coming to a close. The compromises that have to be made to accommodate him are simply no longer worth the hastle: if Kante isn't available, we find ourselves setting-up like we did against Man City, and even if Kante IS available, the team has to scrabble desperately to cover for him.
If he was creating chance after chance for us, then things would be different, but its become this vicious circle in which Fabregas' opportunities to direct attacking play are limited due to the cautious set-ups that we tend to employ to compensate for his presence in the middle of the pitch, meaning that we effectively remove the reason for him to be included in the team..... all so that we can include him in the team; it makes no sense at this point.
I'd be more than happy for him to remain here as a squad player, however (returning to a role similar to that which he occupied last season); I'm just not so sure that he'll be of the same mindset.

Hazard DOES perform in the 'big' games when we play in domestic competitions; it's only really in Europe that he seems to struggle for us.
He was our best player in the CL during the 2014/15 season (including against PSG), and he played very well against Atletico earlier this season as well. Other than that though, Willian has generally outperformed him in Europe (during our run to the semis in 2013/14 (including games against PSG and Atletico); over the entirety of the awful 2015/16 season (most notably in the crunch game against Dynamo Kiev and against PSG), and of course over the two legs against Barcelona this season)).
If we could just work out a system that gets both players firing simultaneously more often than not, we'd have the potential (with one or two additional tweaks) to deploy one of the most devastating attacks in club football, but alas.....

I think his time as an important player for us is coming to a close. The compromises that have to be made to accommodate him are simply no longer worth the hastle: if Kante isn't available, we find ourselves setting-up like we did against Man City, and even if Kante IS available, the team has to scrabble desperately to cover for him.
If he was creating chance after chance for us, then things would be different, but its become this vicious circle in which Fabregas' opportunities to direct attacking play are limited due to the cautious set-ups that we tend to employ to compensate for his presence in the middle of the pitch, meaning that we effectively remove the reason for him to be included in the team..... all so that we can include him in the team; it makes no sense at this point.
I'd be more than happy for him to remain here as a squad player, however (returning to a role similar to that which he occupied last season); I'm just not so sure that he'll be of the same mindset.

I love him so much. Top top player. 

Nah man. Oscar became an average player in comparison to the potential we thought he had when he first stepped foot at the Bridge. He is miles better than Baka on the ball ,absolutely miles better. Even off the ball, I believe Oscar's pressing was far more useful than any sort of 'physicality' brought in by Baka. Oscar wasn't good enough for Chelsea yet he was still a good footballer, Baka is just shocking. 

I still stick to the opinion that he can come good here, but Conte needs to give him a break. He is completely shot off confident and it has got to a point that he is shying away from the ball and he seems also frightened to receive it. He needs to build up confidence. It is good that we have Barkley coming in. Bakayoko just needs to have a little break and work on his technical game. He panics under pressure and he knows the crowd are on to him when he receives the ball. It was actually glaring to see the amount of times, Bakoyoko did not offer himself for a pass in difficult situations because he is scared about making a mistake. Hope he can come good but defo needs a break from the team.
 

Or don't bother stopping Moses and let him slam the ball aimlessly in to the box or out of play.  Alonso wants to cut inside because he's not going to beat you for pace.
Basically, they stop themselves, I guess is what I'm saying. 
Kante and Bakayoko won't pass the ball forwards, and that leaves Cesc trying to take the top off the defence.  Now that everyone is closing down Azpi, there goes our "goal move".  That leaves Morata on the ground trying to get a cheap free kick or Hazard looking at 5 players all facing him up.

The 3-5-2 is rather predictable, which is made even worse by having average WBs, as you mentioned there. Stop Alonso and Moses, which is hardly hard, and there goes our width and all our play will go through the middle, which again makes easy for the opposition to contain us.

I don’t think Costa would. I remember too many times where he received the ball and ended up just dribbling into the defense and giving it away. His physical presence would be more useful though.

I think we will get the best out of him if we stop playing this 3-5-2. The formation is so easy for the defence to restrict Morata. I prefer the 3-4-3, you have the wingers providing balls in and the defence have more attacking players to try to cope with. When you play with a 3-5-2, we don't have the threat of wingers and the creativity relies on Hazard and Fabregas doing everything. It does not help that Alonso is not an explosive LWB to provide the crosses Morata needs and Moses cannot cross for the head level for his life.
Morata has been poor though, make no mistake about it, however think Conte needs to change the formation, especially in these home games to get the best out of his striker. The 3-5-2 formation is just so laboured and a more defensive strategy imo.

Yeah he has been horrific recently but the formation of the team don't do him any favours either. I thought we would moving towards more possession based football this season but the reality has been quite the opposite. I think that's what he thought as well when he signed the contract. Costa would be FAR better in this current style of football we play.

It's not about paranoia or how many trophies has the player led the other club to. The bigger point here is I've never been a fan of selling a player to a direct rival, however useful or useless the player is. Take Matic's case as an example. I mean sure, he's an average player and should never be a first choice starter for us. But he's a decent squad player to have and he can come in to a decent job if needed. Now, we're gonna lose that bit of squad depth and strengthen our rivals' squad depth. The 40m bid for someone like Matic is certainly hard to turn down and if we reinvest that to get someone better, then fine. But then again, this is Chelsea we're talking about here. In any case, that part of "helping" out a rival just doesn't sit well with me.

Complacency appears to have been his biggest issue over the last few months. When he first came into the starting 11 at RWB and was fighting to retain his place, he was so direct and menacing when attacking; now he's often very languid. I don't know if he needs replacing outright when it comes to our starting line-up, but we certainly need to find someone who is able to provide him with some serious competition. At the moment he risks heading the way Ivanovic eventually did under Mourinho once he realised that he was undroppable.

Played out of his skin at times this season and he deserved the praise he got. But there are times when you can tell he's not wired as a defender. The positions he takes up, the speed (or lack thereof) with which he reads situations, and his decisions in the final third are all poor.
Hes a very good option to have in a big squad that'll be in so many competitions next season but he isn't good enough to start every game. We need an upgrade.

Costa must be REALLY (REALLY) popular and influential in the dressing-room, because I really can't see any other reason for why he hasn't been dropped at this point. I mean, I could understand Conte's handling of this issue if Costa had shown him loyalty and an exemplary overall attitude during their time together, but he hasn't; all indications are that he DID actually make some sort of a push for a move in January, and that this came after he had ALREADY done something similar in the summer.
They guy clearly isn't committed to this club, and he's an absolutely awful (close to genuinely useless) player when off-form, so drop him and sell him. Play a front 3 of Hazard-Pedro-Willian for the remainder of the season to try to get us over the line, and then get a long-term replacement at CF. If it's possible (and it may well not be), I'd get Alexis Sanchez, and have us roll with a front 3 of Hazard-Sanchez-Pedro/Willian next season.
It's really saddening that it's come (back) to this, as I had (like just about everyone) been very impressed with him over the first half of the season. I had hoped that he might finally have settled into life at Chelsea, but it seems not.  

That's more than fair fair enough, and it makes perfect sense to me. If we're in the CL next season and are making a serious effort to be genuinely competitive, certain improvements will probably have to be made to the starting 11; Matic, Cahill, and possibly one of either Moses or Alonso are the players who appear most vulnerable at the moment.
That being said, we can only reach a certain level of overall squad depth and quality before we risk harming squad unity. I think that Willian, Cahill, and Moses/Alonso would all be fine with 'expanded squad roles' next season (the season after that, I'm not so sure), but Fabregas and Matic are the two that I can see leaving under these circumstances. Pedro could also be a worry if we strengthen the forward line, as he didn't leave the club he loves (Barcelona) to find himself with the same squad role that he already had (despite the form he's been in this season, he's almost certain to be the man to lose-out if someone new and 'shiny' arrives and Hazard+Costa are retained).